Six Gatesville, TX high school players suspended – Steroids supplied by former coach

1-Nov-2017byTHF in Hoot's Corner | Comments Off on Six Gatesville, TX high school players suspended – Steroids supplied by former coach

District 13-4A superintendents voted 3-1 Friday to suspend for 30 days six Gatesville High School players accused of using steroids provided by a former coach.

The ruling by the District Executive Committee at the 11:30 a.m. meeting in Lampasas takes effect today and has no impact on games played prior to tonight. An emergency appeal by the players and Gatesville ISD is being made to a state executive committee meeting at 3 p.m. today at Georgetown ISD.

In July, GISD launched an investigation after an unknown caller accused a coach of injecting players with testosterone during summer workouts at the school. The coach later resigned and was not charged with any criminal activity. Gatesville ISD, per local policy, suspended the six players for the first scrimmage of the season against Glen Rose, but allowed the players to play in seven regular-season contests after they passed drug testing administered by the district.

Burnet CISD Superintendent Keith McBurnett first learned about the situation on Sept. 14 when it was brought to his attention in a casual conversation and later on that same day by email. He reached out to the UIL for instruction on what to do on Sept. 19 and again on Sept. 27 when he did not receive a response from the UIL after his first attempt. The UIL answered the second email saying he should use the District Executive Committee for a decision, and so he did.

Many reports have claimed that the inquiry came the week of Burnet’s game versus Gatesville, but that was inaccurate information. McBurnett presented a timeline at the meeting representing when all of these conversations and emails took place.

The six players in question admitted at Friday morning’s DEC meeting to having been injected with performance-enhancing drugs during their workouts. Superintendents from China Spring ISD, Lampasas ISD and La Vega ISD all voted to suspend the players, while the superintendent of Liberty Hill ISD voted against the suspension.

Burnet CISD was not allowed to vote, as it brought the charges to the committee, while Gatesville ISD could not vote as the impacted school district.

An attorney for the players argued Friday the DEC has no governing policy to hand out punishment to the players since it would have been governed by local policy, which is what Gatesville ISD used to administer its own punishments in the case. He also argued they did not break state law as they did not actually “possess” any drugs on school property.